As tempting as it was to jump straight into the real world and start making a list, he had something to do first.

Exiting the game world, he found himself in what had once been a room with two couches. However, now, it was a room with two couches and a whole lot of books.

Literally, the whole room was covered in books. Manga really, but the point was that it was messy. Piles were scattered around the place, leaning hazardously, while the floor was hidden under a carpet of bound pages.

He waded towards the largest mountain of books. And there, lying in nestled in a nest of books was Sera, in her child form, her face pressed between the pages.

She didn’t look up, but whether that was because she was purposely ignoring him, or because she was just that deeply engrossed in the story he didn’t know. Briefly, he wondered if he should just leave. It wasn’t like he had to speak with her. He sighed.

He knew it wasn’t suddenly going to get any easier to talk to people. Carefully he cleared away a patch of books, revealing the sofa beneath. Nervous, he sat down and waited.

And waited.

And waited some more. Sera was still ignoring him.

Bored, he began tracing random patterns onto the soles of her outstretched bare feet. Sera didn’t seem to react, simply ignoring him, and kept on reading.

Eventually though her foot twitched, changing positions, and he absentmindedly followed it. This happened a few times, before he noticed that it wasn’t just her foot that was moving, but her entire body that was also shaking.

He continued with a new intensity and a few moments later a small giggle escaped her lips. He watched her hands fly up to her mouth in an attempt to stifle her laughter, but it was no use.

Her façade slipped and she squirmed uncontrollably on the sofa, as her laughter burst forth. He stopped when he saw her gasping for breath. If he didn’t know that she was an AI, he would have been worried that she would pass out from the lack of oxygen.

Sera wiped the tears out of her eyes and turned to him. With an adorable pout she turned to him and crossed her arms with a glare.

“Baka onii-chan” she pouted.

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Deep down Azrael felt something twinge in his heart. He wasn’t sure how to feel about that statement. It was… conflicting.

“Baka onii-chan left me all alone!”

He placed a hand over his heart. He’d never had a younger sister, so he wasn’t sure how to deal with it. It wasn’t a bad feeling, but… he wasn’t sure he could handle it. He held up a hand.

“Please stop” he said “I’m not sure I can...”

Her eyes became huge puppy eyes, moistened with tears.

“Big bwava, weft me all awone”

He flopped backwards, away from her, covering his eyes with his hand.

“Stop, just please stop.” He groaned.

She let out tinkling laugh.

“Sorry, you’re just so easy to tease.”

He looked at her and her innocent smile. Since she was practically made up from his own consciousness, he couldn’t hate her. It was like hating himself for teasing himself in his own mind. It just didn’t work that way.

“So, what did you come here for?” she asked. “You normally just walk by.”

There was no judgment in her voice, only honest curiosity, but all of a sudden, the nervousness returned. What did people talk about when they met? Uh…

“Nice weather today.”

She looked around the white room, books piled up on the floor. He mentally slapped himself.

“Uh… I mean… H-How’s your day been?”

This time she turned to him. A faint smile was tugging at the edges of her lips. Belatedly he remembered that since she was technically part of him, she could read his mind. He threw a book at her as her smile grew to a smug smirk. She was teasing him again!

“Baka”

In the end the situation devolved into them throwing the sofa pillows at each other. For some reason Sera managed to dodge almost all of his, while striking him with unerring accuracy. It was almost… as if she could tell what he was thinking. When they finally collapsed to the floor exhausted, he looked over at where Sera was lying beside him. Truthfully, that hadn’t been so bad.

During the pillow fight Azrael had been so distracted that he’d forgotten about his social anxiety and had even asked Sera about a few things he’d been curious about.

As it turned out Players didn’t get unlimited lives. Except for rare exceptions all players got three lives maximum. Lives would replenish over time, up to a maximum total of three. Sera hadn’t specified how long this ‘recharge’ period was, but had given him a bit more information regarding the other ‘special’ circumstances.

Aside from the passive ‘recharge’ players could actively try and get ‘bonus lives’, through feats that were impressive enough for the system to recognise. These could be feats of death-defying combat, feats of arcane magics, or others such as the crafting and creation of unparalleled pieces. She also hinted that there might be other ways, but wouldn’t clarify.

As it turned out Azrael currently had three lives. He’d had four at one point, having gained an extra life for the crafting of the ‘Status System’. He had lost that bonus life to the spear man, leaving him back on three. Bonus lives would be used up before the rechargeable ones.

When you respawned, you would respawn at the closest place where you had last slept and felt safe. Or at least as close to that spot as practical.

While on a roll, he’d tried addressing things like the Gods, or mana and magic, seeing if she could help him there. But it seemed that she could only share things with him that he had either learnt, or were explained on the official site, or instruction manual.

With nothing left to ask about, he logged out.